FUTURISTIC SCOPE OF STEM CELLS IN MEDICINE

ABSTRACTThe most potential application of the stem cells (SCs) in human beings lies in their ability to regenerate cells and tissues. They differentiate themselvesinto specific cell type, thereby availing remarkable source of replacement cells and tissues. They differentiate themselves into specific cell types,thereby availing renewable source of replacement cells and tissues. Their potential of regeneration has now opened many avenues in the field ofmedical science and research. As a therapeutic adjuvant in near future, the SCs will emerge as an efficient technique to completely heal a number ofdiseases including diabetes, heart diseases and strokes, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and macular degeneration. The researches, which areunderway, some of them will surely be proved as safe and effective SC treatment in the market in due course of time.Keywords: Stem cells, Medicine, Embryonic cells, Heart disease

Bounded Verification with On-the-Fly Discrepancy Computation

Simulation-based verification algorithms can provide formal safety guarantees for nonlinear and hybrid systems. The previous algorithms rely on user provided model annotations called discrepancy function, which are crucial for computing reachtubes from simulations. In this paper, we eliminate this requirement by presenting an algorithm for computing piece-wise exponential discrepancy functions. The algorithm relies on computing local convergence or divergence rates of trajectories along a simulation using a coarse over-approximation of the reach set and bounding the maximal eigenvalue of the Jacobian over this over-approximation. The resulting discrepancy function preserves the soundness and the relative completeness of the verification algorithm. We also provide a coordinate transformation method to improve the local estimates for the convergence or divergence rates in practical examples. We extend the method to get the input-to-state discrepancy of nonlinear dynamical systems which can be used for compositional analysis. Our experiments show that the approach is effective in terms of running time for several benchmark problems, scales reasonably to larger dimensional systems, and compares favorably with respect to available tools for nonlinear models.Comment: 24 page

Application of Computed Tomography (CT) Attenuation Values in Diagnosis of Transudate and Exudate in Patients with Pleural Effusion

Background: Pleural effusion is the pathologic accumulation of fluid in the pleural space. The fluid analysis yields important diagnostic information, and in certain cases, fluid analysis alone is enough for diagnosis. Analysis of pleural fluid by thoracentesis with imaging guidance helps to determine the cause of pleural effusion. The purpose of this study was to assess the accuracy of computed tomography (CT) in characterizing pleural fluid based on attenuation values and CT appearance. Materials and Methods: This prospective study included 100 patients admitted to Gandaki Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal between January 1, 2017 and February 28, 2018. Patients who were diagnosed with pleural effusion and had a chest CT followed by diagnostic thoracentesis within 48 hours were included in the study. Effusions were classified as exudates or transudates using laboratory biochemistry markers on the basis of Light’s criteria. The mean attenuation values of the pleural effusions were measured in Hounsfield units in all patients using a region of interest with the greatest quantity of fluid. Each CT scan was also reviewed for the presence of additional pleural features. Results: According to Light’s criteria, 26 of 100 patients with pleural effusions had transudates, and the remaining patients had exudates. The mean attenuation of the exudates (16.5 ±1.7 HU; 95% CI, range, -33.4 – 44 HU) was significantly higher than the mean attenuation of the transudates (11.6 ±0.57 HU; 95% CI, range, 5 - 16 HU), (P = 0.0001). None of the additional CT features accurately differentiated exudates from transudates (P = 0.70). Fluid loculation was found in 35.13% of exudates and in 19.23% of transudates. Pleural thickening was found in 29.7% of exudates and in 15.3% of transudates. Pleural nodule was found in 10.8% of exudates which all were related to the malignancy. Conclusion: CT attenuation values may be useful in differentiating exudates from transudates. Exudates had significantly higher Hounsfield units in CT scan. Additional signs, such as fluid loculation, pleural thickness, and pleural nodules were more commonly found in patients with exudative effusions and could be considered and may provide further information for the differentiation

Sonographic Measurement of Spleen in Relation to Age: A Prospective Study among Adult Nepalese People in Western Nepal

Introduction: Splenomegaly is an enlargement of the spleen which is a quite common problem in any part of the world. Spleen is enlarged in various clinical disorders e.g. infections, metabolism or storage disor­ders and hematological abnormalities. Splenomegaly is an indicator of pathologic process that may be of primary splenic origin but also may be a reflection of disease in virtually any other organ system. Thus, it is important to estimate the splenic size in vivo in the diagnosis, treat­ment and prognosis of a variety of disorders. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the normal dimension of the spleen in the adult Nepalese people. Methods: This is a prospective study in which 320 adults subjects were scanned by using 3.5 MHz curvilinear probe. We used ultrasonography to examine 160 males and 160 females, not to have any condition likely to be associated with splenic enlargement. The measurement for the length and thickness of spleen were obtained in right lateral position. Results: This study revealed the splenic dimensions for males were greater than in females. The men spleen length were (10.07 ±0.7 cm, 10.1 ±0.54 cm, 9.5 ±0.7 cm and 9.0 ±0.43 cm for age group of 16 - 30, 31 - 45, 46 - 60 and 61 - 75 years respectively). The females spleen length were (9.83 ±0.53 cm, 9.58 ±0.58cm, 9.2 ±0.64 cm and 8.8 ±0.36 cm for age group of 16 - 30, 31 - 45, 46 - 60 and 61 - 75 years respec­tively). The men spleen thickness were more (4.1 ±0.5 cm, 4.05 ±0.58 cm, 3.43 ±0.38 cm and 3.0 ±0.36 cm for age group of 16 - 30, 31 - 45, 46 - 60 and 61 - 75 years respectively). The females splenic thickness were 4.06 ±0.47 cm, 3.78 ±0.48 cm, 3.38 ±0.35 cm and 2.29 ±0.23 cm for age group of 16 - 30, 31 - 45, 46 - 60 and 61 - 75 years respectively. Thus significant differences between male and female splenic dimen­sions were found for each age group chosen (P <0.05). Conclusions: The results show that the splenic length and thickness decreased with increase in age in both males and females and all the di­mensions were greater in males than in females. This study established normogram that can be more reliably used as both a complementary modality to clinical evaluation and as a more sensitive means of evalu­ating and screening patients for splenic disorders for any pathologi­cal enlargement or reduction of size in clinical practice in a Nepalese populations. Journal of Gandaki Medical College   Vol. 10, No. 1, 2017, page: 11-1

BIAdb: A curated database of benzylisoquinoline alkaloids

Background: Benzylisoquinoline is the structural backbone of many alkaloids with a wide variety of structures including papaverine, noscapine, codeine, morphine, apomorphine, berberine, protopine and tubocurarine. Many benzylisoquinoline alkaloids have been reported to show therapeutic properties and to act as novel medicines. Thus it is important to collect and compile benzylisoquinoline alkaloids in order to explore their usage in medicine. Description: We extract information about benzylisoquinoline alkaloids from various sources like PubChem, KEGG, KNApSAcK and manual curation from literature. This information was processed and compiled in order to create a comprehensive database of benzylisoquinoline alkaloids, called BIAdb. The current version of BIAdb contains information about 846 unique benzylisoquinoline alkaloids, with multiple entries in term of source, function leads to total number of 2504 records. One of the major features of this database is that it provides data about 627 different plant species as a source of benzylisoquinoline and 114 different types of function performed by these compounds. A large number of online tools have been integrated, which facilitate user in exploring full potential of BIAdb. In order to provide additional information, we give external links to other resources/databases. One of the important features of this database is that it is tightly integrated with Drugpedia, which allows managing data in fixed/flexible format. Conclusions: A database of benzylisoquinoline compounds has been created, which provides comprehensive information about benzylisoquinoline alkaloids. This database will be very useful for those who are working in the field of drug discovery based on natural products. This database will also serve researchers working in the field of synthetic biology, as developing medicinally important alkaloids using synthetic process are one of important challenges. This database is available from http://crdd.osdd.net/raghava/biadb/

Hmrbase: a database of hormones and their receptors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hormones are signaling molecules that play vital roles in various life processes, like growth and differentiation, physiology, and reproduction. These molecules are mostly secreted by endocrine glands, and transported to target organs through the bloodstream. Deficient, or excessive, levels of hormones are associated with several diseases such as cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes etc. Thus, it is important to collect and compile information about hormones and their receptors.</p> <p>Description</p> <p>This manuscript describes a database called Hmrbase which has been developed for managing information about hormones and their receptors. It is a highly curated database for which information has been collected from the literature and the public databases. The current version of Hmrbase contains comprehensive information about ~2000 hormones, e.g., about their function, source organism, receptors, mature sequences, structures etc. Hmrbase also contains information about ~3000 hormone receptors, in terms of amino acid sequences, subcellular localizations, ligands, and post-translational modifications etc. One of the major features of this database is that it provides data about ~4100 hormone-receptor pairs. A number of online tools have been integrated into the database, to provide the facilities like keyword search, structure-based search, mapping of a given peptide(s) on the hormone/receptor sequence, sequence similarity search. This database also provides a number of external links to other resources/databases in order to help in the retrieving of further related information.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Owing to the high impact of endocrine research in the biomedical sciences, the Hmrbase could become a leading data portal for researchers. The salient features of Hmrbase are hormone-receptor pair-related information, mapping of peptide stretches on the protein sequences of hormones and receptors, Pfam domain annotations, categorical browsing options, online data submission, DrugPedia linkage etc. Hmrbase is available online for public from <url>http://crdd.osdd.net/raghava/hmrbase/</url>.</p

How to...mechanically erupt a palatal canine.

Management of ectopic permanent maxillary canines represents one of the greatest challenges to orthodontists. This paper outlines a variety of techniques and mechanics which may facilitate expedient, predictable and safe eruption of palatal canines. While each method may be useful in isolation, the varying presentations of palatal canines ensure that the ability to apply an array of techniques is essential if successful outcomes are to be consistently achieved

Allele mining in β-lactoglobulin gene of Capra hircus

β-Lactoglobulin (β-LG) genetic polymorphisms are important and well known due to their effects on quantitative traits and technological properties of milk. At the DNA level, polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) allows for the detection of unknown polymorphisms at β-LG loci. Here we describe the usefulness of the PCR-SSCP technique for β-LG typing. In the present study, we amplified and sequenced the part of promoter region and all the seven exons containing the entire coding and untranslated region for the β-lactoglobulin gene in best dairy goat breeds of India namely: Jamunapari and Jakhrana. Nine polymorphisms were detected, one in the l promoter region, four in the introns and four in the exons of the β-lactoglobulin gene. All polymorphisms were single nucleotide substitutions. The polymorphisms in the coding region did not produce any amino acid change.Key words: β-Lactoglobulin gene, dairy goats, polymorphism, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), single strand conformational polymorphism (SSCP)

YOGA PRACTICE AND BIOCHEMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL ALTERATIONS IN NORMAL SUBJECTS

ABSTRACTObjective: To assess the effect of 45 minute yogic kriya (Surya Namaskar and Kapalbhati) for 30 days on various physiological and biochemicalparameters.Methods: About 20 Nursing College students of the Santosh Medical University, Ghaziabad, between the age group 17 and 21 years volunteered toparticipate in the study. They were divided into two Groups A and B. Group A students including 10 students in each group were subjected to 30 daysyoge kriya for 45 minutes for 6 days in a week. Statistical analysis: A student's t-test was used for comparing the means of pre- and post-yoga resultsof various parameters.Results: No significant difference was found in systolic blood pressure, pulse, body mass index, hemoglobin except for fasting blood sugar and diastolicblood pressure (p&lt;0.001) among the yoga subject while comparing with baseline values and control.Keywords: Yoga, Biochemical alterations, Physiological alterations, Surya Namaskar and Kapal Bhati

A critical role of T follicular helper cells in human mucosal anti-influenza response that can be enhanced by immunological adjuvant CpG-DNA

T Follicular helper cells (TFH) are considered critical for B cell antibody response, and recent efforts have focused on promoting TFH in order to enhance vaccine efficacy. We studied the frequency and function of TFH in nasopharynx-associated lymphoid tissues (NALT) from children and adults, and its role in anti-influenza antibody response following stimulation by a live-attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) or an inactivated seasonal virus antigen (sH1N1). We further studied whether CpG-DNA promotes TFH and by which enhances anti-influenza response. We showed NALT from children aged 1.5-10 years contained abundant TFH, suggesting efficient priming of TFH during early childhood. Stimulation by LAIV induced a marked increase in TFH that correlated with a strong production of anti-hemagglutinin (HA) IgA/IgG/IgM antibodies in tonsillar cells. Stimulation by the inactivated sH1N1 antigen induced a small increase in TFH which was markedly enhanced by CpG-DNA, accompanied by enhanced anti-HA antibody responses. In B cell co-culture experiment, anti-HA responses were only seen in the presence of TFH, and addition of plasmacytoid dendritic cell to TFH-B cell co-culture enhanced the TFH-mediated antibody production following CpG-DNA and sH1N1 antigen stimulation. Induction of TFH differentiation from naïve T cells was also shown following the stimulation. Our results support a critical role of TFH in human mucosal anti-influenza antibody response. Use of an adjuvant such as CpG-DNA that has the capacity to promote TFH by which to enhance antigen-induced antibody responses in NALT tissue may have important implications for future vaccination strategies against respiratory pathogens